r/AskAcademia

My grandpa (now deceased) was a mathematician from China who spent around a decade working on a proof for the goldbach conjecture. He believes that he proved it, and a succinct version of his proof was published at his local university in Tianjin & also can be found on the UBC archive. However, the people who reviewed his work didn't really understand what he was doing (I think he spent quite a few days working them through it, this was in the 80s by the way).

His original draft and everything is very very long (around 600 pages). I have a version of it I'm translating to English which is much shorter. I'm the only one in my family interested in what he did, and I want someone else in the area to read his work and see if it has any merit. I think he definitely would have made a few contributions, but given that he did this decades ago and my limited understanding of the conjecture itself, it would be best if someone could help me with this.

I have no idea who to ask or where to find the resources to help. I'm also in high school and have been doing this as a fun summer project, but I think it's worth asking on here anyway if anyone has any suggestions for this kind of stuff. Any help is appreciated!

I'm not sure if this is the right tag, but I'm curious about what others here are working on! I've been meaning to look into research happening in other fields, and this seems like a good starting point :) Feel free to talk about what you're working on :)

I am a mid-career physicist at a national lab looking to move to a lower COL area closer to family where being a single-income family is more viable. I didn't have luck with faculty applications in this last cycle due to lack of teaching experience (I had a pair of zoom interviews with top-ranked engineering programs, but didn't get invited for on-campus because I have never taught classes, although I have advised grad students).

I was told by one of the universities that they would be willing to bring me on as a research professor, provided I could bring in enough funding to establish and maintain my lab. Colleagues have warned me that doing so would likely require ~20 hours per week working on grants alone, above, and beyond regular work.

Is this a reasonable amount if I assume that I'd need to bring in at least $6-700k per year (myself, a lab tech, and 2-3 students)? For professors, how much time do you typically spend on grant applications, updates, etc?

I'm in a US PhD program in a small research group (5). My advisor is coming up to retirement and only has me and this other student left in the earlier stages of our PhDs. Let's call her Zoe. Zoe is a year behind me but a few years older as she had a different career before going to college and graduate school. She is extremely fragile and has a lot of mental health issues, which I am of course sympathetic to. However, her issues are beginning to impact everyone else in our research group, but primarily me. I came into the program relatively young but with a lot of experience in both research and teaching, and so I was made the Head TA for another professor in our department almost immediately after I started. I've successfully run that other professor's classes for 2 years now. I didn't teach for my advisor because he didn't have enough TA spots the semester I started teaching. This fall, Zoe starts her teaching requirements. Her attendance is very patchy, even for her own classes. At one point she was too depressed to come in person for a month, so my advisor has preemptively given her a really straightforward teaching assignment in the fall, which is being a co-thesis advisor to a senior student.

He then asked me if I would drop the class I TA for in the spring so I could TA the same class as Zoe so she could have a mentor. I was completely taken aback and shocked and I refused because our other professor is relying on me and I love the other class. He explained that he didn't want Zoe to be alone and needed her to be mentored when she teaches his spring class as it's of course bigger than the thesis advising one. I said I was very sorry but I wouldn't do it as I had already committed and so he said he was going to see if he could find another student to TA alongside her and basically cover for her if/when she gets depressed. He didn't state that out loud but that was the implication. He seemed shocked when I said no and was a bit grumpy with me for a few days afterwards.

Aside from this, he wants her to come to other TAs' fall classes and shadow us so she can learn how to be a good TA. He has not done this for any other student. I should add that Zoe is not a particularly nice person. I told her that I didn't like physical touch and she quietly said to me she would 'keep hugging me until I liked it', which was super creepy and weird. She now makes a show of hugging me in front of our advisor so it's difficult for me to say no. He has changed group meeting times for her, and walks on eggshells around her and expects us to as well. She regularly comes to lab or group meetings crying or sullen and is also adversarial in research discussions and tries to talk down to us.

Even in my own advising meetings, my advisor brings up Zoe and her problems and asks for my advice on them. He does this to everyone but with a dwindling research group, a lot of it seems to fall to me. I am very avoidant of her but he is trying to force more contact. He seems either fond or scared of upsetting her but it is driving a wedge between everyone else. Does anyone have any advice on how I can speak to him, or at least avoid Zoe as much as possible?

I don't know if this will burn a bridge or not, but this is definitely not an easy thing for me, and I am feeling bad about it. I got accepted into an un-funded MA program back in April, accepted that offer, but now there's another school offering me generous financial package. Given this, I would probably have to decline my previously accepted offer.

If I attend the first school, there will be huge financial burden for my family. My parents care about education and are willing to pay but I myself do doubt if a MA really worths all those cost. But the reason I am doing a MA is for PhD application; I am worrying if I turn down the first school now I am basically saying goodbye to their PhD program.

Humanities folks, do you write essays for a popular audience? If so, why? And where? Is there a benefit to doing so?

I’m starting a thesis-based CS master’s this fall and already have a professor who agreed to be my thesis advisor.

I’m confused about how the process usually works. Do you start with a thesis topic immediately, or spend the first semester reading papers, learning the lab’s work, and trying different projects before choosing a research question?

At what point do you normally form a committee, write the proposal, and start the actual thesis?

Hi everyone, I'll be attending my first conference later this month in Vienna and I was wondering what level of dressing was appropriate for me and my partner?

I would/will ask my supervisor but it's Sunday night atm

Hiiii I just finished undergrad in May and deferred my grad school acceptance for a year and am working as a nanny for my gap year, so I want to continue to do research to have something I can put in my professional resume.

I have extensive (public health and social science) research experience and want to be a volunteer RA for like 5 hrs a week or something (bc I already work full time), so I’m just wondering if labs accept students who aren’t currently enrolled in school.

I tried to contact my old research internship to see if I could continue working on my old project for free and they said you have to be currently enrolled so just wondering if this is kind of a universal rule or it depends on the institution!?

Edit: Thanks for your feedback guys! Pretty much what I suspected lol, but still appreciate the candidness so I know to go another route :)

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand how recommendation letters are typically handled in PhD/graduate admissions in the US, because I’ve seen something unusual and I’m not sure what to make of it.

Two people I know applied to graduate programs (top universities) and were admitted. They told me their recommendation letters were fully legitimate, written by professors, printed on university letterhead, and signed.

However, instead of being submitted from the professors’ institutional email addresses, the letters were submitted using Gmail accounts that were created in the professors’ names (e.g., `professorname@gmail.com`) BY the student!.

They also said since the professors were busy and trusted them with the documents, and since the LORs are legitimate, they just created the email to make it easier for themselves to submit the letters on their own, and to not overwhelm the professors!

What I don’t understand is:

* Is this kind of thing normal or acceptable in academia?
* Don’t admissions committees usually require submission from official institutional emails or secure recommendation systems?
* How would this pass verification at top universities if the email identity doesn’t match the professor’s institution?
* Is it common for admissions committees to accept letters without verifying the email source closely?

I’m especially confused because the letters themselves are clearly real (signed, official letterhead, etc.), but the submission method seems unconventional.

Would appreciate insights from anyone familiar with how graduate admissions actually verify recommendations.

I know it is none of my business, but it just seems unfair to me that some of us go the extra mile to help a professor submit letters and sometimes overwhelm out professors, and some others just use sneaky methods and get away with it!

Hi. First ever Reddit post. As the title says, I want to publish my BA thesis online so people can read it, but found noticeable mistakes in my analysis. What is the best practice reccomendation in my case? Should I publish my thesis and point out the mistakes? Add a corrigendum? - I also want to publish a paper based on my thesis, but I feel like I need to fix this first.

Is it normal to have been told at first that my thesis would be a bit of an independent project, just to be informed a week before it starts that it is part of someone else's PhD project?

This week, Sony customers lost access to hundreds of 'their' digital movies and from 2028, Sony will not sell any physical copies of games anymore. Academic publishers have been doing the same, taking the knowledge hostage to ask libraries for ridiculous subscription costs. So what have the academic reactions been in your point of view?

As the question states, I've been conducting my first interviews for a report, and I just have no idea how to deal with my emotions during and after interviewing someone for research. I guess I'm wondering: how do you work with heavy topics and manage not to let them get to you too much?

For context, I'm interviewing people like conflict reporters and survivors of conflicts, mass atrocities, and human rights violations (overall very horrific and graphic stuff). I have another upcoming project that will need similar interviews, and I really don't know how people don't just cry their eyes out immediately after an interview.

Apologies if this is a bit too heavy/off-topic ㅠㅠ

Hi! My qualifications include having just graduated in Applied Psychology with honours and research (India). My dissertation has been selected to be presented at the annual conference of British Psychological Society in London this September. Sadly, my UG university does not have any specific pool for funding such ventures, and I’ve also gotten no response as of now from any of the government or private institutions inquiring about the same.

Furthermore, I don’t qualify for most government grants since I’m only 21, and a recent graduate.
I’ve also been in touch with the Chair BPS Social Psychology Section; Co-Deputy Chair BPS Research Board, but she mentioned that no travel bursaries exist for the same.

I would love some insights into where or rather, whom to approach for such grants/bursaries.

Thank you for the help!!

I really need some honest advice from people in research, pharmacy, or academia because I'm feeling completely lost.

I'm currently doing an MPhil in Pharmacology at a reputed university in Islamabad. I've completed my first semester but I haven't finalized any topic while everyone else has started their research already and I feel like I'm falling behind.

The biggest problem is that I don't even know how to choose a research topic. Every teacher suggests reading papers first but I struggle to focus on research articles. I can barely get through a page before feeling overwhelmed. I don't know what area interests me, which supervisor I should choose or how people decide what to research in the first place.

To be honest, I didn't choose this MPhil because I was passionate about research or teaching. I'm doing it mainly because of family pressure and because other options are different jobs mostly industry and retail not allowed by my family for me being a female. Research feels mentally exhausting, and the thought of writing a thesis and defending it in front of a committee gives me so much anxiety that it's affecting my daily life.

I just need guidance.

What resources should I start with if I have no idea where my interests lie?

How do you choose a supervisor when you don't know anyone well?

If you have completed an MPhil or PhD, what do you wish someone had told you before starting?

I know this might sound stupid, but that's honestly where I am right now. Any advice, research ideas, resources,courses or suggestions would mean a lot. Thank you.

I did a bit of preliminary googling, but it was hard to tell what the options are, and a lot of the ranking lists were focused on reading books.

I really struggle to focus reading and absorbing dense content from a screen, so my current workflow when I want to really read a paper is to print it, and then go through it with a highlighter, a pencil, and a notepad beside me. But I am starting to feel a little bad for the trees, and my pile of papers is getting a bit unwieldly to go back and find information in.

A digital device seems like it would be more convenient, but it has to replicate the useful parts of the paper experience or I won't use it. Do not tell me to buy an iPad like the comments of the other posts I read. I have enough screens, if one of them was going to be useful, I'd be using it already.

I'm looking for:

• e-ink
  • colour would be ideal, but not a deal-breaker if B/W saves significant money
• approximately letter/A4 size
• extremely basic highlighting/annotating functionality
• works with pdf files
• easy file-sharing with my PC
• doesn't need to be super-portable, I mostly read papers at home.

I had probably a first-gen Kobo when I was a teen that I never got into using because I also preferred paper for pleasure reading, and it was a pain to put books on, but I think I could utilize the right device for academic reading. I know someone in my lab has a ReMarkable, but it seems expensive for what you get.

One of the big ones I found was the Boox Note Air5 C. I like the idea of a device that just runs Android, to avoid being stuck in some proprietary walled garden. It's pricey but the features seem worthwhile. Maybe it's overkill. Has anyone tried it for this purpose?

I could probably also just hook an e-ink monitor to my PC, if it could be tucked away when not in use.

I keep a lot of references in Zotero, which I'm planning to self-host at some point, and I'm located in Canada.

Hey everyone,
I recently got a tattoo on my wrist. It’s not huge, but it’s definitely noticeable. I got it because I genuinely like the design, but after getting it done and sitting with it for a bit, I’ve started feeling anxious about it.
I guess I didn’t fully think it through beforehand. Now I’m worried about how it might affect me in academic or professional settings, especially here in India, since I’m planning to stay in academia. I’m not sure if I’m overthinking it or if this is something that could actually be a problem.
Has anyone else felt this kind of anxiety after getting a tattoo? And for those in academia or similar fields (especially in India), has having a visible tattoo ever caused issues for you?
Would really appreciate hearing your experiences or advice.

While I recognize there are truly abusive advisors, there are so many posts here by graduate students who are upset that their advisors judge them on the quality of their work without taking other factors into account. The reality is that your advisor is there to advise you on the scientific aspects of your work not to help you navigate life more broadly. We are simply not trained to provide you with mental health support or to help you navigate your non-academic issues. Similarly, if you are being paid to work on a grant than your lack of progress has a direct impact on your advisor and their career as well.

People who recently started tenure-track positions: does anyone else find that stability feels somewhat strange or almost suspicious?

Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I've noticed something odd: while grad school rewards change, relocation and constant reinvention, the stability of a tt job sometimes feels “off," like my brain is always thinking of the next big move.

I sometimes find myself daydreaming about changing cities or institutions, even when I know my current situation is objectively very good. I’m curious if others experience this, and if so, how you’ve managed this disconnect.